A couple of businesses, one based in Denver's Highland neighborhood and the other in Arvada, have decided downtown Longmont will be a sweet spot to open their second locations.

Happy Cakes Bakeshop, creators of cupcakes and other dessert treats, plan to open in a couple of months, the owners say. And Scrumptious, which offers homemade ice cream, nostalgic candies and hard-to-find sodas, should be opening within the next few weeks, its owner says.

Both qualify as what are called destination retailers, which is exactly the kind of businesses the Longmont Downtown Development Authority wants to see more of.

"We moved into Olde Town Arvada thinking we would rely on the walk-up traffic, but we're finding that we get people driving to come in from Greeley, from Evergreen," said Scott Spears, owner of Scrumptious, which opened in June 2000.

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That's music to the ears of the LDDA's executive director, Kimberlee McKee. Downtown already has a few destination retailers that draw from way beyond the city limits -- Crackpots; Cheese Importers, which moved downtown last year; and several stand-alone restaurants -- but it can always use more.

"I think the addition of these two stores and hopefully more like it is the culmination of what we've been working on downtown, with the creation of the arts and entertainment district and in bringing in what the community has said they want down here," said McKee. "They really fit our model of locally owned businesses."

In the case of Happy Cakes, one of the four co-owners lives in Longmont, which was at least partly the reason the owners chose this city to open their second location, according to Stacy Walker, one of the four. She lives in Longmont and before that lived in Dacono for more than a decade, so she knew Longmont well.

Happy Cakes started with running partners Laura Reynolds and Sara Bencomo dreaming of escaping their corporate drudgery by opening a bakery -- specifically a cupcake bakery. Meanwhile, Lisa Herman was a student at Regis working on her master's of business administration degree and had based her business plan based on opening a -- what else? -- cupcake bakery. Herman didn't know Reynolds and Bencomo, but they shared a hairdresser. Hearing their respective stories, the hairdresser introduced them and the three founded the business.

Hand decorated cookies made by Happy Cakes Bakeshop. The Denver-based sweet shop is opening a Longmont location at 449 Main St. in a few weeks. (Photo courtesy of Happy Cakes Bakeshop)
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Walker joined the company first as a baker, in 2009, and in June of last year she became a fourth owner. That's when they started looking for a second location.

Since one of the other owners lives in Broomfield, it made sense to start looking around in Boulder and Broomfield counties. They scouted several locations but ended up settling on 449 Main St. in the heart of downtown Longmont.

"It's a real similar feel to our Highland home," Walker said. "A real walking neighborhood, that neighborhood kind of feel. Lots of little shops and boutiques and restaurants, all within a couple blocks walking area. We're hoping to see more of that as Main Street redevelops, and we're excited to be part of that."

Walker and her partners bought the building for $275,000, and because they're converting a former retail space into a bakery, that means an additional couple of hundred thousand dollars in investment.

When it launched, Happy Cakes only did cupcakes, but it has since expanded to doing small cakes, cookies, bars and pies. The 3,000-square-foot Longmont location -- double the size of the Highland store -- will allow them to make much bigger cakes than they can now, and it should help boost both its catering and corporate business, Walker said.

But short of driving to the Highland store, Longmonters with a sweet tooth will have to wait a bit longer to sample a banana split- or pomegranate margarita-flavored cupcake.

"You never know what glitches can come up in construction, but we'd love to be open by Halloween," Walker said.

For Spears, the Scrumptious opening is still a few weeks out, although he said he can at least see some light at the end of the tunnel after spending months rehabbing the interior of 508 Main St., which he and a family member partnered on buying for $285,000.

Like Walker, he said downtown Longmont reminds him of his original location in a lot of ways. And the way he discovered it was almost by accident, he said.

"I was actually at a golf cart store out on I-25; I was looking to buy a golf cart to make a small, a really small, mobile truck that I could drive around Arvada," Spears said.

While at the store he told the guy waiting on him about his business and the man told him that his store would be a perfect fit for Longmont. That guy suggested Prospect, Spears said, but his dad, who works in Longmont, suggested the historic downtown, between Third and Sixth avenues, might be a better fit. So Spears parked and walked around and ended at the Longmont Area Chamber of Commerce building at 528 Main St., where the LDDA is also located.

"Kimberlee took me on a tour and really sold the area to me," Spears said.

The front of a 1951 Ford F1 pickup hangs on a wall with fake exposed brick at Scrumptious, 508 Main St., on Wednesday in Longmont. Scrumptious, which sells homemade ice cream and old-timey candies and soda, is opening soon.
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